World Music Features

Yair Dalal "I think of myself as an Arabic Jew,” says Yair Dalal, “somebody that continues the Judeo-Arab tradition from Iraq, which has changed by being in Israel. When I play or when I compose, many things are in my head and in my spirit." By Michal Shapiro

Salif Keita Salif Keita is one of the most universally recognized voices in Afropop music. The near-Sisyphean struggles endured and Olympian triumphs attained over the five-decade course of Salif Keita’s hard-knock life are way more compelling/conclusive arguments for the defense. By Tom Terrell

Los Amigos Invisibles Going from small weekly gigs at discotheques to appearing on MTV and filling 5,000-capacity arenas, Los Amigos were an overnight sensation with their unique tropical/disco wizardry. By Enrique Levin

Damon Albarn and Afel Bocoum “In any kind of music, you can’t really start to understand it until you’ve been to the country. You can appreciate it but to actually understand it you have to go there."--Damon Albarn By Phil Meadley

James Bilagody and the Cremains

James Bilagody and the Cremains As the first power chord jolts you out of your seat, you find yourself thinking, this sure ain’t no powwow music. Sacred Stage, by James Bilagody and the Cremains is a fusion the likes of which the elders never dreamed. By Jeff Tamarkin

Stimmhorn

Stimmhorn Stimmhorn takes Swiss tradition another step further, adding 21st century electronic textures into the mix as a means of interrogating the effects of globalization and immigration on the notoriously closed-off nation. By Tom Pryor